Parliamentary questions
Stewart Stevenson
2,358 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many lecturers it expects to be employed in Scotland in 2014-15 in (a) universities, (b) colleges of further education and (c) other institutions offering tertiary level qualifications.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive does not provide forecasts of the number of lecturers expected to be employed in Scotland in the future. Specific decisions on staffing levels lie with individual institutions and are driven by a number of factors including demographic …
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many students it expects will be studying for tertiary level qualifications in 2014-15.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive does not provide forecasts of the number of students expected to be recruited in Scotland in the future. These figures will depend on a number of different factors, such as demographic change, future skills needs, economic conditions an…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many companies it expects to be registered in Scotland in 2014-15.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive does not provide forecasts of the number of businesses expected to register as companies in the future. These figures will depend on the future development of a wide range of economic and legislative factors, in Scotland and elsewhere, …
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many businesses are expected to be registered for VAT in Scotland in 2014-15 (a) assuming nil inflation and unchanged rules or (b) otherwise.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive does not provide forecasts of the number of businesses expected to register for VAT in the future. These figures will depend on the future development of a wide range of economic and legislative factors, in Scotland and elsewhere, which…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many school students it expects there to be in 2014-15.
Answer · Peter Peacock: The latest pupil projections estimate that there will be 674,800 pupils<i> </i>in publicly funded Scottish schools including pre-school in September 2014.</p>
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses it expects to be employed in 2014-15.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The number of nurses required to provide NHS services in 2014-15 will be subject to changes in the way services are delivered over the next ten years.</p><p>Work is underway to project the number of nurses and midwives required in 10 years time as part of the…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many civil servants it expects to employ in 2014-15.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The size and make-up of the staffing of the Scottish Executive is mainly determined by the elected party’s programme for government. Development of the programme is usually based on decisions taken by ministers during the normal four year cycle of the Parliam…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many general medical practitioners it expects to be employed in 2014-15.
Answer · Andy Kerr: NHS board-employed status, as opposed to independent contractor status, became a mainstream contractual option for general medical practitioners through the new General Medical Services Contract, implemented from April 2004. </p><p>The future number of genera…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many teachers it expects to be employed in 2014-15.
Answer · Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has a commitment to ensure that there are 53,000 teachers in publicly funded schools by 2007. No decision has been taken on numbers for future years but the Executive is always committed to and bound in law to endeavour to secure improv…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers it expects to be employed in 2014-15.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: While recruitment of police officers is an operational matter for chief constables, the most recent spending review in 2004 provided for sufficient resources to deliver our Partnership Agreement commitment to increase the number of police officers during this…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many tertiary level students who have received financial support from public funds have suspended or terminated their studies, without gaining the qualification studied for, in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Jim Wallace: Data on student support in Higher Education is collected by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). The following table shows the number of HE students who withdrew from their studies without gaining the qualification studied for, having received finan…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many tertiary level students received financial support from public funds in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Jim Wallace: <u>Higher Education (HE)</u></p><p>Data on student support in higher education is collected by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). The following table shows the number of HE students who received financial support (either tuition fee, loan or grant…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that sentences containing an element of community reparation will be given in 2005.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The role of the Executive is to ensure that courts have access to a sufficient range of appropriately resourced sentencing options. Sentencing decisions are for the courts. There is a continuing increase in the use by courts of community based penalties, incl…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what capacity there will be for sentences to contain an element of community reparation in 2005.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: In 2005, courts throughout Scotland will continue to have access to a range of community based penalties which contain an element of community reparation. These include both Community Service Orders and Probation Orders - where the court has imposed an additi…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has regarding the number of CCTV cameras that were installed during each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Hugh Henry: Information is held centrally on CCTV cameras funded through the CCTV and Make Our Communities Safer Challenge Competitions which ran consecutively over a six year period ending in March 2002. We awarded funding of £10.3 million through these competitions for…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many blood donors have been (a) lost and (b) recruited by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service since the statement on variant CJD by the Minister for Health and Community Care on 17 March 2004.
Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) has reported that 9,500 donors have been deferred since the introduction of the deferral policy announced on 17 March 2004. However, following the implementation by SNBTS of an effective marketing and pu…
7 Jan 2005 · SPCB Written Question
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body how many questions have been lodged for the randomised computer selection for each Scottish Executive Question Time under each theme for each week since 11 March 2004.
Answer · George Reid: Details on the number of questions lodged for the randomised computer selection for each Scottish Executive Question Time under each theme since 11 March 2004 are detailed in the table below.</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width=609> <thead> …
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average speed of drivers convicted for speeding was in areas where the legal maximum speed was (a) 20mph, (b) 30mph, (c) 40mph, (d) 50mph, (e) 60mph, (f) 70mph and (g) any other speed in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Information at the level of detail requested is not available in the statistics held centrally.</p>
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what contribution to the reduction in greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollution is made by the installation of speed cameras.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: The primary aim of the Safety Camera Programme is to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on Scotland’s roads. No detailed assessment has been made of the impact of speed cameras on emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. </p>
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many accidents, broken down by category, it estimates have been avoided by the installation of speed cameras in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Statistics on the effectiveness of safety cameras in reducing casualties are reported in the independent Three-year Evaluation of the UK Safety Camera Programme. These relate only to safety camera partnerships that have been operational within the Programme f…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many convictions were obtained by speed cameras in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Convictions obtained by speed cameras are not separately identifiable in the statistical information held centrally. Information on the number of police conditional offers for speeding offences which were detected automatically is given in table 17 of statist…
7 Jan 2005 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many speed cameras were installed on (a) trunk roads, (b) urban roads other than trunk roads and (c) other roads in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Cathy Jamieson: Information is available for speed camera sites that have joined the Safety Camera Programme since it was first piloted from 2000-02. The increase in camera sites over this period therefore are a combination of new sites established by safety camera partnersh…
5 Jan 2005 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to increase the proportion of holidays by Scots that are taken in Scotland.
Answer · Patricia Ferguson: The home market is very important for Scottish tourism. The additional resources we have made available to VisitScotland will strengthen the marketing of Scotland as a great place to take a break, not only in overseas markets and in the rest of the UK, but he…
20 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total travel costs were for (a) ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials in each of its departments in each year since 1999.
Answer · Tom McCabe: It is not possible to separate from the Scottish Executive’s accounting system the full cost of the ministers’ travel costs from that of staff in their private offices. However, the information available is set out in the table below. Travel costs include air…
20 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of refurbishing each ministerial private office was in the last four years.
Answer · Tom McCabe: No significant refurbishment work has been carried out in any private ministerial offices on the Scottish Executive estate in the last four years.</p>
16 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much each of its departments and agencies spent on IT consultants in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer · Tom McCabe: The expenditure, by Department and Agency, on IT Consultancy activities over the last five years is as follows:</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3 width=582> <thead> <tr> <td> <p align=center>Department/Agency</p> </td> <td> <p align=c…
16 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what costs have been incurred by the First Minister in respect of (a) accommodation, (b) travel, (c) transport, (d) stationery and (e) hospitality in each year since 1999.
Answer · Tom McCabe: With the exception of hospitality, it is not possible to separate in the Scottish Executive’s accounting system all of the First Minister’s costs from the First Minister’s staff costs but the First Minister’s Office costs as a whole are detailed in the answer…
15 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the First Minister's staff costs have been in respect of (a) accommodation, (b) travel, (c) transport, (d) stationery and (e) hospitality in each year since 1999.
Answer · Tom McCabe: It is not possible to separate in the Scottish Executive’s accounting system all of the First Minister’s costs from the First Minister’s staff costs but the First Minister’s Office costs as a whole are detailed in the following table –</p><table border=1 cell…
7 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will conduct a quantitative analysis regarding any potential adverse effects on communities served by smaller aircraft of any common charging scheme for air navigation services implemented under the Single European Sky.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: No. The Scottish Executive’s efforts are focussed on supporting the Government’s continuing pressure on the European Commission to ensure that any adopted common charging regime does not place a disproportionate regulatory burden on smaller aircraft and the c…
7 Dec 2004 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what its position is on the UK Department for Transport"s stance on regional air services as contained in the UK response to the Eurocontrol consultation on Draft Single European Sky Implementing Rule on a Common Charging Scheme for Air Navigation Services.
Answer · Nicol Stephen: The Scottish Executive is aware of the concerns of regional airlines and airports about the Single European Sky Regulations which require the development of a common charging scheme for the recovery of the costs of air navigation services provided to airlines…